Lets see "A World of Warcraft Movie". Lets assume that the common individual nowadays knows that there is a video game called "World of Warcraft" and that the most sucsessful game to date in human history.

This fact alone will attract A LOT! of people to the theatres. Now, we dont fool ourselfes.. Everyone who plays or has played a warcraft or world of warcraft game will watch this movie.

If this movie is anything near trailer, teaser, ingame cinematic qualety that we know from blizzard this movie will be awesome. (Altought i highly doubt this qualety because it would be extremely expensive to produce)

Now the last thing i can do is check my movies that need to be released in my life list:

WoW, Warcraft based movie - check
Warhammer 40k "The Horus Heresy" based movie (Everyone who has read the whole bookline will know... best Story I have ever read) PLS DEAR HIGHER BEING ABOVE US ... SOME DAY LET IT BE PRODUCED! - no check

The only opinion I really have over this movie thing... For a company that already has movie quality trailers, those character models already existing someplace and artists capable of that work, I will forever /facepalm over them wanting it to be live action. Ok, I get it, you want to rival Lord or the Rings and whoever... But for gods sake Blizzard, stick to animation and you could probably even do much of it in-house if you have the office space!

that's my thoughts on it as well. they can have a movie director and studio "helping" with the production but the more Blizzard is involved in this the better.

The thing with game movies that don't end well is because the movies are real-action and the games are not.

I think a video-game movie like the "Ratchet & Clank Movie" that is supposed to be released in 2015 with fare VERY well with the audience since it uses the game's cutscene animations to be used in the movie, so it's like you're watching the cutscenes of a game in a movie.

If Warcraft is animated as it is in the cutscenes, I'm sure it will be a VERY epic movie. I'm not sure if they do live-action though.

Aside from the Lich King storyline, which still had its cheesy moments, I have yet to see story in-game that would grip my attention.

Add the fact that this project is blockbustery and the kind of blockbustery writers that attracts...and this seems doomed.

Surprise me. Go on. Make a compelling movie. But I'm not seeing it until the reviews are dripping with positives.

They will probably not go for something in-game i bet. Rather something in the Lore. Something with the creation of Azeroth (Pantheon of Titans), Corruption of Sargeras, the Space journey of the draenei. Something we haven‘t seen yet at all. or maybe a new chapter of WoW. Who knows

If game popularity translated to box office success, the D&D movie should have been a hit -- only the power brand of RPGs (i.e. the "Kleenex", the "Post-It") for, what, 25 years when that movie came out?

It takes more than that. Absolutely agree that this movie will only be a hit if it makes people who have never so much as heard of the pre-WOW warcraft games and only know somebody who has ever played WOW, want to go see it. And having a bankable star and/or hot chicks will not do that alone, either (or "After Earth" and "Sucker Punch" would have been hits).

Kathranis, LOTR and the MCU are actually perfect examples of making movies that appeal to non-fans. You didn't need to know jack shit about the drilled down details of Middle Earth, or of any Marvel continuity, to a) understand what was going on and b) really enjoy it.

If game popularity translated to box office success, the D&D movie should have been a hit -- only the power brand of RPGs (i.e. the "Kleenex", the "Post-It") for, what, 25 years when that movie came out?

It takes more than that. Absolutely agree that this movie will only be a hit if it makes people who have never so much as heard of the pre-WOW warcraft games and only know somebody who has ever played WOW, want to go see it. And having a bankable star and/or hot chicks will not do that alone, either (or "After Earth" and "Sucker Punch" would have been hits).

Kathranis, LOTR and the MCU are actually perfect examples of making movies that appeal to non-fans. You didn't need to know jack shit about the drilled down details of Middle Earth, or of any Marvel continuity, to a) understand what was going on and b) really enjoy it.

Yes; Omg I had such high hopes for the D&D movie back in the day. Boy was that a let down. Honestly still have high hopes for the "Warcraft" movie. Mostly because its not a "wow" movie. Taking place during the first 3 games or any kind of good back story will improve the movie completely. Also you wont have so many issues with lore. Honestly Im hoping for a less grand story and more of just a story about some people in warcraft. Maybe Even something like how the story of Day of the Dragon started, or any good adventurer story should start. The person were watching is just given a minor mission that turns into saving the world.

Briefly: It might actually happen! After years of waiting, word on the street (or in the producer's office) is that the World of Warcraft movie will actually start shooting early next year. SlashFilm was speaking with Atlas Entertainment producer Charles Roven (Season of the Witch, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel) who told them about Warcraft: "we're moving forward; obviously Legendary is making that film and I'm having a great time with Duncan." That would be director Duncan Jones, of Moon and Source Code, who got the job in January this year. Roven added: "First quarter 2014 we're going to shoot that movie." That puts it on target for a 2015 release, but we'll be keeping an eye on no matter what. This should be cool.

"The pen is mightier than the sword.. and considerably easier to write with."

I guess we'll be seeing if this movie is any good. I have my doubts if they start shooting in 2014 and expect to have the massive amount of special effects done by 2015.

Depends.... If they start shooting in February for 4 weeks, that would make it March to wrap up the shooting. Then they have time until December 2015 to cut it and do the CGI stuff, special effects and what not.
The people behind the movie do stand for quality in that type of movies. There's some hope to see a decent flick
We - the games core base - may not be too excited, I can see that happen. The movie is aimed at a wide range audience, and not just at us "fanboys".

"The pen is mightier than the sword.. and considerably easier to write with."

Hey, you know what movies were really popular mainstream hits? Lord of the Rings, Iron-Man, The Avengers.

Just about all the big hit blockbuster movies these days are made by nerds about things nerds like, and that hasn't stopped them from being succesful (yet).

Part of Lord of the Rings' success was that they were able to alter the story sufficiently to make it appeal to general audiences, yet not enough to make it stop being Lord of the Rings. But even then, purists complained as they will always complained.

The problem with WoW is that, unlike LotR, it has no linear plot. It has lore, but not a "story" per se. Unless they decided to make a movie of the plot of one of the RTS games, they are going to have difficult creating a compelling story that is sufficiently accessible.

It's ok, we don't know it will be a bad movie. We can only be sure it will be bad if they cast Ben Kingsley in it. Not sure if it's the man's or the movie's fault, but in recent years he only stars in shit movies.

It's ok, we don't know it will be a bad movie. We can only be sure it will be bad if they cast Ben Kingsley in it. Not sure if it's the man's or the movie's fault, but in recent years he only stars in shit movies.

If I had to bet money on it....I'd bet it would be a bad movie. Either they'd fail to make it accessible enough, or they make it too accessible. The margin between the two is -very- slim.

I think what a lot of people are forgetting is that ALL of the past video game based movies were either based on Japanese games, directed by Uwe Boll, or they had a premise that wouldn't translate well into film in the first place.

This is actually a very important thing to note. 2 Out of those 3 things automatically doom a movie to failure, regardless of source material. Uwe Boll is fucking awful and having a bad premise is fucking awful. Like, who the fuck thought Mortal Kombat would work as a movie? And that's actually one of the less shitty movies comparatively lol.

Imo, with the current state of Japanese developers, Japanese games should NOT be made into movies. Japanese developers, in general, are terrified of putting their ideas out there for the western world to see. They much prefer to "delegate", to listen to others when it comes to western marketing. Take for example, the new Devil May Cry game. Capcom payed Ninja Theory, a European developer to make DmC: Devil May Cry because they felt that they had no idea how to make a game that the western world would appreciate, so they went to a western developer and asked them to put their own spin on DMC.

The same thing happens with movies. These Japanese developers trust "experts" to make the right decisions and not fuck up their franchises. Blizzard is not like that. Game developers need to be deeply involved with the creative process for the movie 100% of the time. They can't just let ignorant directors run wild with their IPs. To this end, they need a director that will acquiesce to their wishes, instead of fighting to do things their way. That's why I was so happy when Blizz kicked Sam Raimi off the project because they couldn't agree on a script. The game developers trying to make movies need to be very heavy handed with this sort of thing.

This is the same reason why Man of Steel was great and Dragon Ball: Evolution was shit. Akira Toriyama and Shueisha Publishing just "left it to the experts" instead of saying, "you're gonna make it like this and you're gonna like it or you're not getting within 500 miles of my franchise!"

I think anyone that is saying game movies are always doomed to failure is being willfully ignorant by not looking at what actually causes these movies to fail in the first place. Warcraft has the potential to be not just good, but great. All it needs is a well written script, a good budget and then the director just needs to let Warcraft be Warcraft.

---------- Post added 2013-06-23 at 02:03 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Didactic

Part of Lord of the Rings' success was that they were able to alter the story sufficiently to make it appeal to general audiences, yet not enough to make it stop being Lord of the Rings. But even then, purists complained as they will always complained.

The problem with WoW is that, unlike LotR, it has no linear plot. It has lore, but not a "story" per se. Unless they decided to make a movie of the plot of one of the RTS games, they are going to have difficult creating a compelling story that is sufficiently accessible.

My main issues with the LOTRs movies are actually just mistakes that Peter Jackson made, not things that were intentionally done to make the movies more accessible. My biggest gripe is actually the fact that Jackson mistook the Banner of Elendil for Anduril in Return of the King. He just didn't realize that the long thin gift wrapped in cloth that Aragorn received was a banner and not a sword. It would have been one extra 20 second scene to explain that Narsil was reforged in Rivendell, and then one extra 10 second scene to show that Aragorn puts the banner on the southron ship to let Gondor know that their king had returned. He kind of missed the entire point of book five.

If Goku's power level increases at the same rate till the end of DBGT as it does till the end of the Frieza saga, as a SS4 Goku would have a PL of roughly 939 Quinoctogintillion. For reference that is a 260 digit number. A PL of 14,600 is required to destroy an earth sized planet. There are about 2 nonillion earths worth of mass in the universe. That means SS4 Goku can destroy the universe about 32 Octosexagintillion times over. There's a reason they made Goku a god at the end of GT.

Because the premise of warcraft is meant to be a serious fantasy genre, unlike something like mario or sonic, there is a risk of them trying to aim for a target, and missing it completely.

They've done this with games like lara croft, street fighter, resident evil, prince of persia, silent hill and mortal kombat. Some may have mildly worked, like silent hill or one of the resident evil movies, but the rest have been just shit, including the super mario brothers movie *shiver*.

To me, if they intend to go live action, there is a very, very strong risk of them making a huge mess of this, where as if they made a full on CGI movie of wow, it would have been easier to make the story come together.

Wow is a world with humans and dwarves and talking bull men and orcs who aren't all herp de derp and talking dragons and demons and loads of stuff, in a game it works because its as far removed from reality it can somehow blend together. But if you try and take all the stuff wow has to it and attempt to get people to take it all serious, in the space of under 2 hours, well, its a massive risk.

Theres a reason they should be scared of it being a flop, because warcraft has all the mechanics to make a great game.. and a really shitty movie if done even slightly wrong.

What makes wow work so much, is that its cartoony in its enviroment, so anything they give us in this world ends up working because its all a cartoon. But, if you take real people, and try to make a story with them alongside talking bull men, goblins, talking dragons, undead, demi gods and super powered heroes, it just doesn't sound like anything you can make realistic.

I heard it was a movie about a guy that goes into Kara weekly and never gets lucky rng for the mount to drop. We watch this for about two hours, then on the last attempt before the movie is over.... the mount does not drop again. Millions of WoW player will be leaving the theatre saying, it sure does mimic what playing WoW is like.

My main issues with the LOTRs movies are actually just mistakes that Peter Jackson made, not things that were intentionally done to make the movies more accessible. My biggest gripe is actually the fact that Jackson mistook the Banner of Elendil for Anduril in Return of the King. He just didn't realize that the long thin gift wrapped in cloth that Aragorn received was a banner and not a sword. It would have been one extra 20 second scene to explain that Narsil was reforged in Rivendell, and then one extra 10 second scene to show that Aragorn puts the banner on the southron ship to let Gondor know that their king had returned. He kind of missed the entire point of book five.

Uh, no, false.

Peter Jackson and all of the other writers/producers/etc. read the books, and they knew that the Banner of Elendil was what Aragon received in RoK: however, they switched it up for the simple reason that they felt the scene would be more meaningful to general audiences if they went with an item that had been introduced in the first movie and yet was still pertinent to the role of the King returning; i.e. Narsil. Another thing that might have pissed you off was the way they introduced Arwen. But guess what? The way they did it was a far stronger introduction to the character and it saved them the hassle of having to introduce a character that in terms of the general plot of the books was relatively peripheral (Glorfindel).

As I said, purists will complain, but you have to understand that Lord of the Rings verbatim is unfilmable. It was not conceived of nor written as a standalone piece, and there are many references in the book that people unfamiliar with the general corpus of Tolkien's works or even the appendices would be unfamiliar with.

Getting back to the point of the Warcraft movie; again, the fact that Warcraft has lore but not a linear storyline can be both boon and bane. They have to make the storyline sufficiently compelling while at the same time making the universe accessible to the audience. I personally would bet on the side of them not pulling it off.